SW Radio Africa

27 May 2011

Education Minister Senator David Coltart joins Lance Guma on Question Time once again, to answer questions sent in by listeners using facebook, twitter, skype, e-mail and text messages. What will he do about children being sent home from school over non-payment of fees, war vets intimidating teachers in the rural areas and the ongoing Cold Comfort school saga. This is PART 1

SW Radio Africa (London)

By Lance Guma

26 May 2011

Education Minister Senator David Coltart has told SW Radio Africa that no child should be sent home from school over non-payment of levies. But last week the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association said numerous schools in the city were sending children home, contrary to the announced government policy.

Speaking on our Question Time programme Coltart said; “I find that hard to accept because for a start, headmasters know what the law is. There is a statutory instrument, a law which was published way back in 1998, which makes it very clear children cannot be turned away for non-payment of levies.”

Coltart said most headmasters tend to hide behind the school fees which are far less than the levies and are ‘nominal.’ He said; “For example in rural primary schools there are no fees payable at all. Even in high density primary schools there is a nominal fee payable per term of no more than US$10 per term which even the poorest people generally can pay.”

Asked if it was possible headmasters were disregarding the directive Coltart said; “There is a lot of lawlessness which has crept into the education sector in the last decade. A lot of it has been caused by the economic collapse in the country.” He said they have not been able to ‘adequately police the system and many of the district education officers, who are the people responsible, don’t have transport.”

So what can parents do if their kids are sent back home. “What I ask parents to do is go to their local provincial education director if they are able and report the case to them, so that we can then try and follow up and deal with it,” Coltart said.

SW Radio Africa

25 May 2011

Education Minister, Senator David Coltart, joins SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma on Question Time once again, to answer questions sent in by listeners using facebook, twitter, skype, e-mail and text messages. What will he do about children being sent home from school over non-payment of fees, war vets intimidating teachers in the rural areas and the Cold Comfort school saga where a private college has taken over the farm school?

Interview broadcast 25 May 2011

Lance Guma: Due to many requests, Education minister, Senator David Coltart joins us again on Question Time. Listeners sent in their questions in advance of the interview using FaceBook, Twitter, Skype, email and text messages. Senator Coltart, a pleasure to have you once again.

Education Minister David Coltart

David Coltart: Well thank you for having me Lance. Always a pleasure to be interviewed by you.

Guma: Now last week the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association slammed the chasing away from school of children who have failed to pay their fees. They said since Tuesday, numerous schools in the city, I take it that Tuesday last week, have been sending children home contrary to the announced government policy. They also reported that headmasters are claiming they have not received this instruction in writing. Your reaction to that Senator?

Coltart: Well I find that hard to accept because for a start, headmasters know what the law is. There is a statutory instrument, a law which was published way back in 1998 which makes it very clear that children cannot be turned away for non-payment of levy. Let me stress levies not fees. The law says that in the event of levies not being paid, school development committees, headmasters must sue parents or guardians for payment of the amount due.

So this is a long-standing law that has been in place and no-one’s got any excuse for breaching that law. They tend to hide behind this issue of fees but of course the way our financial system is structured, the fees are nominal. For example in rural primary schools there are no fees payable at all and even in the high density primary schools there’s a nominal fee payable per term of no more than ten US dollars per term which even the poorest people generally can pay. So I think it’s disingenuous to say that they don’t know about this.

Guma: From Roderick Fayayo who is with the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, they’re saying there’s a clear disconnect between your statements and the reality on the ground. Is it possible that some headmasters are just flouting this government policy?

Coltart: I would agree with that. There’s a lot of lawlessness which has crept into the education sector in the last decade. A lot of it has been caused by the financial, by the economic collapse in the country and let me stress that I’m very sympathetic towards teachers. Teachers are not paid a viable wage but what has happened is that it’s got out of control.

But there is this disconnect, there is the law that’s there, it’s not being complied with and the trouble is that we have not been able to adequately police the system. Many of the district education officers who are the people responsible within the ministry don’t have transport and have not managed to get out and see what is happening in these schools and that has contributed to this lawless situation.

Guma: So what can parents do who have had their children sent back home because of non-payment? What sort of recourse do they have?

Coltart: Well let me stress that parents must pay the fees. This might sound a very technical issue for you Lance but there’s a distinction between fees and levies. As I explained just now, the fees are nominal amounts, they are equivalent to admission fees and parents must ensure, guardians must ensure that these nominal fees are paid.

Once they are paid, and let me stress that government, these fees apply to government and local council schools, they don’t apply to private schools, but once those fees have been paid, no child can be turned away for non-payment of levies and if that is happening then what I ask parents to do is to go to their local provincial education director if they are able.

The story you got came in from Bulawayo so it’s relatively easy for them to go in to see the provincial education director in Bulawayo and report the case to them so that we can then try and follow up and deal with it. But Lance let me tackle this from another perspective as well. At the root of this problem is our inability to adequately finance the education sector and this is the real dilemma that I find myself in.

I’m very sympathetic towards poor parents who cannot afford to pay these levies but the other side of the coin is that because of the lack of money that we have in the education system at present we are not putting sufficient money into schools to adequately pay teachers, to adequately provide for text books, pens and chalk and all the rest of the paraphernalia that we need to run a school properly and unless parents and guardians dig deep, their children are going to get a second-rate education and it’s the other side of the coin.

As hard as it is to pay these levies, I urge parents to make education an absolute priority and to do whatever they can to pay those levies. But if they simply can’t afford to, if they are destitute then what they need to do is report this issue to the provincial education director, but also to go and speak to the SDC and the headmaster to explain their plight. Because I’ve said we must be compassionate towards those people who simply cannot find the money to pay these levies.

Guma: You talk about lack of finance affecting education, those who have heard reports of billions of dollars worth of diamonds in Chiadzwa will find it very difficult to sympathise with your statement.

Coltart: Well I agree that is an issue that faces all Zimbabweans; we want to make sure that our natural resources are being exploited for the benefit of Zimbabweans, not a small clique, but the problem is and Minister Biti has said this time and time again that we need to get the proceeds of the diamond sales into government but the reality is there has been relatively limited inflows.

Minister Biti has said even in the last couple of weeks that the projected inflows for 2011 have not been according to what he had hoped and the amount that we are paying for salaries for example, is a huge proportion of our monthly expenditure. And I’m seeing it within the education ministry; we had this relatively good budget announcement that four hundred and sixty nine million dollars to be allocated to education but the harsh reality Lance is that we’ve got hardly any of that money.

Teachers are being paid and that is good but in terms of the balance of money that we need to paint schools and pay electricity bills and buy text books, we’re getting minimal receipt and this is the dilemma that we face in this transitional government. Our country’s rich, should be rich, should have sufficient money to pay for education but at present the money simply isn’t there.

Guma: Now Nqabutho Nicholas Dube says what is the government position on temporary teachers and why are we not going back to ZJC? It’s difficult for students to write Grade Seven finals and then ‘O’ levels without them having written ZJC.

Coltart: OK, there are two issues there; the one is the issue of temporary teachers – we have allowed temporary teachers. During 2007 and 2008 we lost 20000 teachers out of the teaching profession and we’re doing what we can to attract the qualified teachers back; our goal is to have as many qualified teachers but in the interim, we have to have temporary teachers. So the policy is that where there is no teacher at all, temporary teachers should be allowed back, should be allowed in the system.

Regarding the second issue – the ZJC – my focus has been to stabilise ZIMSEC. When I took over in February 2008, ZIMSEC was in an awful state, they hadn’t even marked the public exams that had been written in November 2008, the computer systems were antiquated. We have pretty much stabilised ZIMSEC; we’ve got the exams marked on time now and I think that public confidence is growing in ZIMSEC.

I didn’t want to move towards expanding the examination system in any way until we had stabilised and so that’s why our focus has been on ensuring that at the very least Grade Seven, ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level exams are being properly set, then properly marked. And I think within the next year or so we can conduct a review but it’s too early to think of reintroducing another examination while the ZIMSEC is still relatively fragile.

But if there’s a need, if there’s an educational need to reintroduce that we’re very open to that. Let me stress that Lance, that we’re in the process of starting a comprehensive system of reviewing the curriculum which includes a review of the examinations and that’s going to be started fairly soon, the next year or so and I think at the conclusion of that process, we’ll have a much clearer idea of what examinations we need to set to meet that new curriculum.

Guma: Newsday is reporting that a headmaster at Mapo Primary School in the Odzi area has reportedly fled from the school after allegedly receiving death threats from suspected war veterans and ZANU PF supporters because he had accepted a school donation from the area’s MDC-T senator. Now I know in the past we’ve discussed this issue, in fact in the first Question Time where you came, we discussed this issue of threats directed towards teachers and headmasters by war veterans. I’m sure you’ve seen this report, is there anything your ministry can do about things like this?

Coltart: It’s very hard to adequately deal with situations like this. These reports come to me and in the past what I’ve done is I’ve responded by moving teachers out of danger to try and protect them. I’ve made statements in Cabinet, I’ve spoken in parliament about this issue and I’ll keep on making those statements. What I’ve said to all parliamentarians is that ultimately children suffer; it’s not the political parties, it’s not the parents or guardians but we’ve shown very clearly that when there’s intimidation like this, qualified teachers want to move away from those areas, they are replaced by temporary teachers and we can see that the education standard drops immediately.

So ultimately it’s the children who suffer and we’re trying to get that message through to all political parties. I’m also working very closely with trade unions, all three trade unions so that they know I’ve got an open-door policy, that I can get reports of this nature and try and react to it but I think the main thing that I’m doing at present to try and combat this is by re-looking at our education legislation.

I’m in the process of conducting a comprehensive review of all the statutory instruments relating to education; I’ve consolidated the statutory instruments which have been produced over the last 30 years, we’re going to be producing a single viable and in the course of that process I’ve also looked at measures to reinforce this policy that we have that schools should be politically neutral zones, they should be peaceful sanctuaries where teachers and school children can focus on education and for the first time we’re going to introduce some sanctions to combat this.

At present all I’ve been able to do is issue policy statements but if those policy statements are disregarded, I can’t go to the police to report those responsible because there’s no crime attached but I hope that if we can pass these new regulations and make partisan political activity in schools illegal then we might give some teeth to these policy statements.

Guma: Chief Ruzani Adrian Tafadzwa wants to know what you are doing to help solve the Cold Comfort School saga? Parents say they were not notified that Cold Comfort School Junior, formerly a farm school had been taken over by Herentals College and the new fees are too exorbitant for most parents who are low-income earners.Lessons at Cold Comfort School in Dawnview Suburb, formerly Cold Comfort Farm, in Harare were disrupted following a dispute over the ownership of the premises housing the school.

Coltart: I met with the chair, secretary and a member of the school development committee regarding this matter last night and received a full briefing from them. They confirm the story that this company has seemingly purchased the buildings where the school premises are. The school fees at present are 50 US dollars per term and this new company has announced that the school fees will be 40 US dollars per month and the equivalent of about I think 160 US dollars per term.

This is the only school in this whole area and it’s a poor area so parents simply can’t afford to pay these exorbitant fees which are a lot more expensive than equivalent schools, in fact are almost as expensive as some private schools so it’s a very unsatisfactory situation. The problem that I face at present is that the high court issued an order last week in favour of this company.

The headmaster of the school has filed a notice of appeal to the supreme court; the matter is now sub judice, I called for the judgement so that I can see what the judgement says, but what I’ve said to the school development committee and if I could say to your listeners and to the particular listener who sent in this query, that ultimately I will do all in my power to protect the interests of children.

That is my primary mandate. We do not want any child’s education to be disrupted and we certainly don’t want it disrupted by some companies who may be seeking to speculate over buildings but the short term problem that I face as I say, the matter is sub judice; I need to see the judgement and understand it because clearly I can’t go against any order of the high court but I just want to reinforce that I will do all in my power to protect the interests of these children.

Guma: Well Senator Coltart the reaction or the response we got from our listeners to this interview is so immense. There’s absolutely no way we’ll be able to finish all the questions this week so I’ll have to end the interview here but hopefully we can get you again next Wednesday so that we can finish off some of the questions that have been coming from people. Some want to know whether you’ll introduce entrepreneurship as a subject in schools, there are questions over IT and economic development in the curricula, there are questions on extra lessons, teachers’ incentives and really we hope we can get you again next week.

Coltart: Well I’d certainly welcome that Lance. One of the strange quirks of this transitional arrangement is that I’m very rarely asked for interviews by ZBC so I have very limited opportunity to speak to the public, to speak to the parents, to convey my thoughts and so I really welcome this interaction that you provide through SW Radio Africa. You’re doing a great job, thank you.

Guma: Well Zimbabwe that’s Education minister Senator David Coltart joining us on Question Time. Senator thank you for your time.

Coltart: OK Lance, keep well.

Zimbabwean

By Vusimuzi Bhebhe

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

The legal secretary of the smaller MDC faction, David Coltart (Pictured), has warned that Zanu (PF) would effectively derail the power-sharing agreement it signed with the former opposition if it presses on with plans to fast-track the constitution-making process and call for elections this year.

President Robert Mugabe wants the ongoing process to draft a new constitution fast-tracked in a move that would see a referendum for the proposed governance charter brought forward from September to July/August, paving the way for general elections by the end of 2011.

Coltart cautioned at the weekend that any attempts by Mugabe to bulldoze the constitution-making process would render the Global Political Agreement (GPA) irrelevant and would be a slap in the face for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which was the co-sponsor of the power-sharing pact.

“Any shortcuts that Zanu (PF) intend trying in constitutional process will be the equivalent of tearing up the GPA brokered by SADC,” said Coltart, the legal supremo for the smaller MDC faction led by Industry Minister Welshman Ncube. Mugabe told a regional newspaper last week that processes leading to the holding of fresh elections in Zimbabwe should not be delayed “any further than is necessary”, saying the referendum to decide on the new constitution should be held by August.

The MDC formations, the Southern African Development Community and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have ruled out elections this year, insisting that a lot still needed to be done to ensure polling conditions are conducive. This includes an overhaul of the country’s shambolic voters’ roll and the re-demarcation of constituency boundaries.

Newsday

By Nyarai Gomiya

24 May 2011

Tonga is now an official part of the Grade 7 syllabus which pupils will be tested on in the first-ever examination later this year, a Cabinet minister said Monday.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart told NewsDay the government was committed to ensuring all minority languages were taught in the country.

“This progress has transpired as part of a policy to assist all marginalised indigenous languages to be recognised and protected,” he said.

“The ultimate goal is to take these languages right through to high school.”

In 2009, when Coltart took over the Education portfolio, he pledged that all minority languages would be taught especially at schools where they were predominant.

Tonga will become the third indigenous language after Shona and Ndebele to be tested as part of the official school syllabus.

Coltart said materials to assist in making indigenous languages a part of the school syllabus were being prepared.

“We will need to find teachers who can teach the languages as well as the textbooks required for the pupils to learn from and aid for this will be coming from the Education Transition Fund,” he said.

Coltart said the development was a culmination of consultations held with the people of Binga regarding marginalisation of their language, particularly since more thanone million people use the language daily in the region.

Binga North MP Patrick Sibanda, who has been lobbying for the inclusion of Tonga in the mainstream education system up to Advanced Level, Monday expressed his pleasure over the development.

“I am very happy with the decision, now my children will be able to learn their own language,” said Sibanda in an interview Monday.

“With time I hope Tonga will be taught in all other areas the language covers, right through to Advanced Level and at university level.” Coltart said future testing would also be done in other minority languages including Kalanga, Venda, Shangaan, Chewa (Nyanja), Nambya and Sotho.

He said learning materials for minority languages will be funded under the $70 million Unicef donation released last year to the Education Transition Fund to revive the education sector.

New Zimbabwe.com

24 May 2011

AUSTRALIA have named a fairly strong A-side for next month’s one-day tri-series involving Zimbabwe and South Africa, and two four-day matches against the hosts in Harare and Bulawayo.

Tim Paine, who has been tipped as Australia’s next Test captain, has been named skipper of the Australia A squads set to arrive in Zimbabwe on June 26. South Australian batsman Callum Ferguson will deputise him.

Paine is vice-captain of the national Twenty20 team and remains the heir apparent to Brad Haddin’s place behind the stumps in the Test line-up.

Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister David Coltart, who travelled to Australia to convince them to set aside their reservations about touring because of political concerns, expressed delight at the selection.

“I’m excited by the prospect of such a strong Australia A side coming to play cricket in Zimbabwe next month. Good on you Aussies!” Coltart said on Twitter.

Political tensions and safety concerns have prevented Australia playing top-flight matches in Zimbabwe since 2004, but Paine said he had no qualms about touring.

“There’s professionals who are employed by Cricket Australia to keep an eye on that sort of thing,” he said.

“Closer to the tour, I’m sure we’ll get a security briefing from those people, but at this stage I haven’t heard anything different.”

There are plenty of familiar names in the two squads, including recent Test debutants Usman Khawaja and Michael Beer, alongside young quicks Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner and Mitchell Marsh.

Pat Cummins – the 17-year-old paceman who made a blistering start to his first class career with NSW – misses out because of a back injury.

Queensland batsman Chris Lynn was called up after an impressive finish to the season, despite being outside the provisional 24-man squad.

Australia A will play a one-day tri-series involving Zimbabwe and South Africa, before finishing with two four-day matches against the host.

The limited-overs triangular series starts on June 29, and the two four-day matches will stretch the tour to July 23.

Australia A one-day squad: Tim Paine (capt), Callum Ferguson (vice-capt), Luke Butterworth, Trent Copeland, James Faulkner, Ben Hilfenhaus, Aaron Finch, Nathan Lyon, Chris Lynn, Nic Maddison, Mitch Marsh, Mitch Starc, Stephen O’Keefe, David Warner

Radio VOP

23 May 2011

MDC leader Welshman Ncube has again ruled out prospects of a unity deal with Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC ahead of future elections saying differences that divide the two factions are ‘too deep and strongly felt.’

Ncube, who was responding to a question on his fan page on the social network website Facebook on Tuesday sad he does not believe Tsvangirai’s MDC will ever accept unity under equal terms.

“I don’t believe that there is such a possibility,” he said. “The things which divide us are deep and strongly felt.”

He mentioned the issue of violence, politics of deception, abuse and slander hardly distinguishable from Zanu PF as some of the things that made unity impossible.

“ Notwithstanding all the differences as a party, we have remained open to working with them and have never ruled out anything as borne out by the fact that in 2008 our national council endorsed the pact which we had negotiated and included the agreement to back Tsvangirai as the sole opposition candidate, ” Ncube added.

“ But the MDC national council rejected that pact. I do not believe that they would ever accept any re-unification, except that which amounts to surrender by our party. ”

Ncube also posted his views on the micro blogging website Twitter. He said his party will not be forced into unconditional surrender.

Last year David Coltart, the secretary for legal affairs in the MDC hinted that there were discussions to reunite the two factions which split in 2005 over differences around the party’s participation in Senate elections.

Several efforts have been made to reunite the two formations but they have all come to nothing.Zimbabweans believe that only a united MDC can defeat Zanu (PF) in the elections.

The Standard

By Nqaba Matshazi

22 May 2011

More than five months into the year, Zimbabweans are no wiser as to when the next elections will be held with Global Political Agreement (GPA) principals seemingly pulling in different directions and giving contradictory statements.

At least four dates are being cited as the time when elections would be held. Zanu PF prefers to have polls this year, while Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has announced elections could be held sometime next year.

But others say 2013 is the most feasible date and yet again, Tsholotsho legislator, Jonathan Moyo has claimed that if elections are not held this year, then they should be no polls till 2016.

Just when the nation was beginning to warm to the idea that elections would not be held this year, President Robert Mugabe thunderously announced that there was no reason why polls could not be held this year.

This follows a meeting of Mugabe’s Zanu PF party’s politburo, which reportedly berated its negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa for saying polls could not be held this year and proposing that they either be held next year or 2013.

But on the other hand, Tsvangirai told a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum summit in Cape Town, South Africa, that elections could only be held within 12 months but certainly not this year.

Welshman Ncube, leader of a faction of the MDC told a business conference in Bulawayo that elections were impossible this year, with the nearest possible date for a poll being March next year.

The main stumbling block, all parties claim, is the finalisation of a new constitution, which Mugabe insists should be completed this year, while Tsvangirai and Ncube’s parties claim that this is not possible.

Bulawayo legislator, David Coltart has waded into that debate saying Zanu PF’s proclamations should be ignored as it was impossible to complete the drafting of the new charter.

“No matter what Zanu PF says to Sadc (Southern African Development Community) leaders, fact is we cannot complete (the) constitutional reform process and have elections this year,” he wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter, last week.

“(We) cannot start electoral process in Zimbabwe until we know whether we have an executive president or prime minister, proportional representation or first past the post and dual citizenship or not.”

Coltart, a lawyer by profession, said any shortcuts that Zanu PF tried would be equivalent to tearing up the Sadc-brokered GPA.

Parties must allow wounds to heal— analysts

University lecturer and analyst Lawton Hikwa said it was obvious that at some point elections had to be held but having a poll this year might not be a priority, arguing that the constitution and economy needed more attention.

“This is causing unnecessary anxiety and it confirms that there are problems in the GPA,” he said. “Given the 2008 election violence, people still have fresh memories and having an election so soon may not be expedient.”

This anxiety, Hikwa argued, could be a deterrent to investment as it portrayed an unstable country at a time Zimbabwe is desperate for investors.

Hikwa said the best time to hold elections would most probably be either  late next year or in 2013, when the constitution would have been dealt with and the economy back on steady ground.

Another analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, claimed there was a lot riding on this election and more so for Zanu PF than the other parties.

But he said he did not see Mugabe going ahead with polls this year, dismissing this week’s call as rhetoric and a way to test waters to see if election talk would gain favour with voters.

“Mugabe will not counter (South African president) Jacob Zuma, who has already spoken of conditions to be met before any elections are held,” the analyst said.

“He might be seen to be contradicting him (Zuma) but I think he is trying to show that he is his own man.”

Zuma has called for an electoral roadmap to be in place before polls, but Zanu PF seems to be singing a different tune. Its chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo claimed his party was against the roadmap but would be bound by the GPA.

But without a definite date for elections, tension continues to mount with reports of violence and intimidation across the country.

• No matter what ZANU PF says to SADC leaders fact is we cannot complete constitutional reform process and have elections this year #
• Cannot start electoral process in Zim until we know whether will have exec president or pm, PR or first past post, dual citizenship or not #
• Any shortcuts that ZANU PF intend trying in constitutional process will be the equivalent of tearing up the GPA brokered by SADC #
• Meetings today in Jozi to discuss funding for curriculum review and reform in Zimbabwe #
• Always good to be home – great to see so much progress on Bulawayo's new airport terminal and on new hockey turf for Olympic qualifiers #
• New terminal but no Air Zim to use it – its turmoil caused by the abuse and mismanagement it has suffered at the hands of Zanu for 31 years #
• Tendai Biti would make a great replacement head of the IMF but we need him In Zimbabwe #
• Intrigued by the DA's use of twitter compared to the ANC – am I just following one side or have the ANC not grasped the power of this media? #

Newsday

Sport Comment

May 21 2011

Major leagues in Europe and closer in neigbouring South Africa, end this weekend.

For Zimbabwe, the focus is on all players called up for the Warriors-Mali 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier set for June 5 being in the country at least by Monday, at the earliest.

That will give enough time to coach Norman Mapeza and his technical team to camp for longer to prepare for that crucial tie. We have seen longer camps work, the Mighty Warriors spent more than two months in camp for their All-Africa Games qualifiers and they are off to Maputo in September for the finals.

The Warriors team has been named and communication has been sent to various teams for the release of called-up players, as per procedure, although there should be no problem as the seasons are rounding off this weekend in overseas leagues.

Naturally, there will be one or two players not immediately available as they will be sorting out contractual issues, notably Justice Majabvi at Lask Linz in Austria, whose contract runs out end of June.

But there is always an Achilles heel here, one organisation called Zifa.

Really, one does not know what to say or do with this organisation. Vice-President John Nkomo is interested in assisting this organisation to its financial dire straits by doing some work behind the scenes, but will his work be rewarded, considering Zifa president Cuthbert Dube’s corporate governance theme and transparency in the administration of the scarce financial resources?

Has Education, Art, Sports and Culture minister David Coltart given up on Zifa this early? Yes, we know he was given $800 000 for all sporting disciplines for 12 months by his counterpart Tendai Biti at the Finance Ministry, but surely something can be sourced from somewhere?

Can’t we get a slice of diamond revenues from Mines minister Obert Mpofu just to pay for accommodation for the team for two weeks and the hosting of Mali and match officials for an additional five days?

Mpofu and Biti, for now, will say they are concerned with issues of civil servants’ salaries. And we understand that.

If we can raise $300 000 for some individual called Munya Chidzonga for some Big Brother nonsense, surely we can’t fail to raise that same amount to pay allowances and appearance fees for 23 players?

What a shame!

Not withstanding all that, Zifa has no choice, they just have to run around and organise the funds for this major assignment. Not to talk about raising an additional $67 000 to pay Sunday Chidzambwa!

Last time, for the trip to Mali, Dube had to put up title deeds to one of his properties to secure funds from a local bank. Can he continue to do that? No he cannot, otherwise he will just collapse due to debt.

The board has a member (marketing) Nigel Munyati, an expert in his field, but he has not made the Zifa brand and its flagship, the Warriors, known to the world and more importantly visible to the corporate sector. No wonder fans wear South African national football team jerseys to Warriors matches.

Zifa just has to raise money and offer no excuses this time around. They need to do more than spend time on Chidzambwa, Tom Saintfiet and Henrietta Rushwaya; the trucks, generators and Toyota Virgos will not pay the players.

What is needed is some confidence in the corridors of power, both political and corporate, that better things can be achieved with the senior national team or everybody will just put their money on the Mighty and Young Warriors.